Overlapping

How to spell overlapping

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce overlapping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does overlapping mean?

1. adjectivePartly covering or coinciding with something else, so that two things share a common area or period.

Overlapping in a sentence

• The two roof tiles sit in an overlapping pattern to keep the rain out.

• Their shifts had an overlapping hour so they could hand over the work.

Where does overlapping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the verb 'overlap', which joins two very old English elements. The first, 'over', comes from the Old English 'ofer', meaning 'above' or 'across', a thoroughly native Germanic word with cousins throughout the Germanic languages. The second, 'lap', comes from the Old English 'læppa', which originally meant a loose flap or fold of a garment, the same sense that survives in 'the lap of a coat' and in your 'lap' when you sit down. To 'overlap' literally pictured one fold lying partly across another, and the verb was first recorded in the early 1700s before spreading into geometry, scheduling, and everyday speech. The doubled 'p' in 'overlapping' is the usual English habit of doubling a final consonant after a short stressed vowel when adding '-ing', the same rule that turns 'lap' into 'lapping' and 'tap' into 'tapping'.

How the word is built

• over- (above, across)
• lap (a fold or overhanging part)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)